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New York Times website harvests iPhone location data

The New York Times Company Research and Development Lab has developed its own tool to take advantage of location-tracking data that caused a kerfuffle when it was discovered that Apple was collecting said data. Although the issue has been resolved, the newspaper points out that regular people can benefit from the information as well as Apple.

OpenPaths is a database where anonymous users can contribute their personal location data by uploading it from their phones. The data is password-protected, and contributors can only reveal who they are when they grant access to research requests. Participants can browse their own data after it's uploaded.

If you're interested in joining the project, head over to the OpenPaths site to sign up. The site warns that the OS 4.3.3 update can disable access to the data that the site is looking for.